In Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), customer premise equipment (CPE) is connected to a router. In a given city, a customer might request multiple connections (interfaces or ports) on a router. If all the ports for a particular customer are assigned to a single router and the router fails, all the ports for the customer are down until the failure is cleared. This “exposure” of a single customer is reduced if the customer's ports are assigned to multiple routers. However, this creates another problem, since the full set of routes used by the customer must be stored on each router the customer's ports are assigned to. This can lead to inefficient use of router resources (e.g., early router exhaustion due to insufficient memory), and increases the number of routers required for the customer virtual private network. The problem therefore is how to minimize the impact of a router failure without purchasing more routers.
The virtual private network business is growing very rapidly, and customers are very concerned about router failure affecting service. The ability to minimize a customer's exposure to a router failure without additional cost to the customer and the service provider is a big selling point. A typical Cisco router costs about $300,000 to install and embodiments of this invention could save 1 router per location. If a service provider has 50 locations that is a savings of $15 Million.
The present embodiments solve these problems.